Final trial date set in connection with Fairfield dumping scandal

BRIDGEPORT — Stating she was finished with delays, a Superior Court judge Thursday set what she called the final trial date for two former Fairfield officials and the owner of an environmental cleanup company in connection with Fairfield’s dumping scandal.

Following a hearing, Judge Tracy Lee Dayton set Feb. 27 as the trial date for former human resources director Emmet Hibson,

Brian Carey, the town’s former interim public works director and town conservation director and Robert Grabarek, the owner of a Clinton environmental cleanup company.

“I’m done with delays,” the judge said.

Dayton did agree to hear renewed arguments on whether Hibson should receive accelerated rehabilitation, a pre-trial probation program. Another judge had previously denied the program.

A hearing on Hibson’s application for the program is scheduled for Jan. 18.

Hibson, Carey and Grabarek, are all charged with illegally dumping PCBs, violating solid waste management regulations and conspiracy – all felony charges.

Three former town officials previously pleaded guilty in the dumping scandal. Former Fairfield superintendent of public works Scott Bartlett was sentenced to five years in prison; Joseph Michelangelo, Fairfield’s former director of public works, is awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to allowing contaminated soil to be dumped at the town’s public works yard; and former town financial officer Robert Mayor was given a suspended sentence for participating in the coverup.

In 2013, Julian Development, owned by Jason Julian, was hired by the town to manage a pile of debris next to the public works garage with the prohibition that it was to accept no contaminated material there and was to eventually clean out the site.

But over the next three years, the site went from 40,000 cubic yards of material to approximately 180,000 cubic yards, covering nearly three acres. Subsequent tests found the pile contained high levels of PCBs, lead, and other hazardous materials, according to court documents.

Ordered to reduce the pile, court documents state that Julian, with the help of Bartlett and Michelangelo sold the contaminated soil to the town as clean fill that was used as the foundation for the Penfield Pavilion and at parks and playgrounds around town.

Julian pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to six misdemeanor criminal environmental charges including illegally discharging hazardous materials into Connecticut waters, illegally disposing PCBs and engaging in an illegal dumping operation.

Under the deal worked out by the judge, Julian will be sentenced to 18 months in prison and pay a total of $2.5 million in restitution to the town of Fairfield on Jan. 29.